Monday, October 29, 2012

Arrow 1.03: "Lone Gunmen"

“I was wondering when you were going to get to that. The white knight swooping in to save the disenfranchised, all by his lonesome with nobody to help.”
- Diggle

Okay, so I know I’ve raised this issue in the last two posts and I’m going to raise it again, but I promise this will be the last time. I’m tired of the voice overs. Especially when they’re overly recap-centric. I understand the show is new and new viewers may still be joining us. But for those of us who keep watching week to week, it’s irritating. But we do start week 3 with a voice over and a work out scene (so at least we get to see Oli shirtless flexing his big sexy man muscles). He’s going after James Holder, a rich guy who put defective smoke detectors into low income housing. Bad boy James. Oliver heads out to deliver some pointy justice when someone else beats him to it. Someone shoots James Holder in the chest and nicks Oliver’s arm. He gets back to his hidey-hole (man cave?) and has stitched up the bullet wound only to realize the bullet was poisoned. This leads us to another flashback. Oliver is in a pretty bad way with that spear still in his shoulder. The guy that shot him has brought him into his hut to protect him (thank you subtitles). Oli is confused but drinks what the guy gives him and grimaces as the spear comes out. Back in the present, Oliver realizes he’s late and gets home to find the cops have brought a drunken Thea home after a night of breaking and entering. He’s disappointed to see his mother coddling her and says he could have benefited from a tighter leash.

Detective Lance and his partner are at the scene at James Holder’s house. His partner thinks Arrow killed him and realized that bullets are more efficient than arrows. Lance isn’t convinced. Back in his man cave, Oliver tests his blood and discovers it was laced with a rare poison used by only one person; a man Interpol has code-named Deadshot. So now Oliver has a new target. We see Deadshot tattooing himself with Holder’s name on his arm. That part I didn’t find entirely believable I mean he has tattoos everywhere. How could he possibly see where he was putting them all? Moving on. It seems Oliver has taken to the idea of creating a night club in his father’s old run-down factory (aka right above his man cave). Tommy thinks it’s a little crazy but he and Oliver are going to scope out the competition the following night at anew club called Poison owned by a guy who has very little regard for Oliver (Oli slept with the guy’s fiancée at the rehearsal dinner).

Laurel is busy at work cyber-stalking Oliver when her friend says they’re going out that night to party a little bit (to get Laurel out of her slump). And back at the Queen mansion, it seem Moira is taking the hint from Oliver. She grounds Thea for two weeks. We’ll see if it actually does any good. Over at the precinct, Detective Lance’s partner comes back with the ballistics report. Given the new evidence (of sniper rounds and poison), Lance is even less convinced Arrow is behind the kill. So he heads out to Holder’s place to snoop around some more. Meanwhile, Oliver has done some digging of his own and connected the money trail to the Russian mob. He’s got a lead now on who may have taken out Holder. He heads down to Russian territory and manages to convince the guys inside he’s a Captain in the mob and they’re going to get the info he needs. I kind of found that a little unbelievable. Do they not know he’s the recently returned castaway rich boy? Anyway, we cut briefly back to Deadshot as he’s tattooing another name on his chest. Another bidder in the ownership of a big company has died. Detective Lance and his partner head over to Queen land to question Moira and Walter. Walter assures them he’s got his own protection in Diggle and that they’ll call if they need any help.

That night, it seems everybody is out enjoying Poison, including previously-grounded Thea. Oliver tries to get her to leave but she spills the beans about Tommy and Laurel and snubs her brother. Oliver isn’t surprised. Not that he’d have long to be since the owner of the club shows up and starts being the crap out of him and Tommy. Laurel steps in and kicks some ass herself (thanks to karate lessons Daddy Detective made her take). After Laurel tells Oliver she doesn’t need his forgiveness or blessing for being with Tommy, we get another island flashback. Oliver sneaks out of the cave and ends up running confused through jungle until he’s literally caught in a net. Back in the present, Diggle takes the boys to his sister-in-law’s burger joint. We learn that Diggle’s brother was killed in the line of duty (as a bodyguard). We also see that Oliver is super chill about Tommy and Laurel being together. Even better, he gets the name and last known address for Deadshot, Floyd Laughton. Laughton is there and he and Oli have a gun/arrow fight until Laughton crashes out the window. Oliver snags the guy’s laptop and goes to make nice with the pretty IT chick at the company. She reminds me a little of Garcia on Criminal Minds.

While Oliver is getting the low down on the information on the laptop he stole from Laughton, Moira and Thea are having a heart to heart where Moira admits she was always jealous of her husband in how he could handle and connect with Thea. Ultimately, mother and daughter agree to start fresh and Oliver finds out that a man named Warren Patel has hired Deadshot. Oliver knows now he can’t take on Deadshot alone so he pretty much twists Detective Lance’s arm into helping (literally). Before we get to the big climax, Laurel agrees to give Tommy a try. Just before the bids are in, Deadshot starts shooting. Oliver manages to slip out and takes the guy on. Thankfully, he manages to put an arrow right through the guy’s eye. Unbeknownst to Oliver, Diggle was following him and gets hit. Oliver carries him to his man cave and just as Diggle comes around for a minute, he sees Oliver in Arrow get up minus the mask and hood. I have to say I’ve been waiting for this since episode 1. They are going to make a kick-ass team!

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